Policy Integrity submitted an amicus brief in support of the Department of the Interior and BOEM's 2024-2029 five-year leasing plan for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) resources, raising three main points.
First, we review how the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act's (OCSLA) legislative history supports Interior's consideration of downstream effects when valuing OCS oil and gas resources. We show how Congress expected energy needs and available resources to both evolve over time, and therefore granted Interior broad discretion to consider the economic, social, and environmental values of OCS resources weighed against their extractive impacts.
Second, Policy Integrity explained how Interior's decades-long regulatory practice in creating five-year leasing plans included consideration of downstream environmental effects in various ways, like assessing the relative environmental impacts of using different energy sources.
Third, Policy Integrity explained why standard valuation practices support Interior's consideration of downstream public costs from OCS resource consumption alongside downstream private benefits from that same consumption. In particular, we presented how Interior's valuation methodology includes consumer surplus, a downstream private benefit from using (combusting) OCS fossil fuels. Then we discussed why, to provide a complete and balanced assessment, Interior must also consider the downstream public costs (e.g., environmental impacts) of that same combustion.
Policy Integrity's brief concluded by helping the court understand how this comprehensive approach aligns with OCSLA's mandate that Interior consider the "economic, social, and environmental values" of OCS resources in developing five-year leasing plans.